Henry Ford's War on Jews and the Legal Battle Against Hate Speech

V.S. Woeste. "Henry Ford's War on Jews and the Legal Battle Against Hate Speech." Stanford University Press, 2013. https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=20243

This book provides a startling new interpretation of a scandalous episode in the life of Henry Ford: his side career as a publisher of antisemitic literature and propaganda. Using never-before discovered evidence from the Ford archives as well as private collections from lawyers and civil rights leaders involved in trying to stop Ford’s libelous newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, this book shows how deeply involved Ford was in the operation of his newspaper, how he invited the libel lawsuit that was filed against him in 1925, and how he maneuvered to end the litigation out of court. These newly discovered sources also reveal deep divisions among Jewish civil rights lawyers and religious leaders over how to handle the Ford matter and why they disagreed on the usefulness of resorting to law to answer hateful publications. Throughout the twentieth century, American courts have generally declined to recognize the category of hate speech as an exception to free speech rights under the First Amendment. Yet in order to end the embarrassing litigation, Henry Ford apologized to American Jews for the one thing he would never have lost on in court: the offense of hate speech against all Jews as a group. The case and its ambiguous resolution reveal the tensions in law and culture between individual freedoms and the status of those seeking equality on the basis of group identity.

Professor Woeste lectured about Louis Marshall in Syracuse, NY on 9/13/12. Click here for a soundbite from a local Syracuse radio show that covered her visit. On 9/19/12, Woeste was also interviewed on local Channel 9 News in Syracuse. Click here to view the broadcast.

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